Steampunk apocalypse

It had been a long time since I've gone to the movies and seen a trailer for a large-scale, high-concept sci fi fantasy movie I'd never heard of before. But that happened Thursday night with the trailer for the Peter Jackson-produced Mortal Engines.

This book cover gives you a better idea what the movie's about than the fairly nondescript movie poster, which shows only the female protagonist with her trademark sash covering everything but her eyes (presumably to save her from some kind of post-apocalyptic toxic air?).

I don't actually know what the movie's about, and that's great -- this was just a teaser trailer and it's exactly what I wanted from a thing like that. If you haven't seen it, I'll describe it to you.

We open on a shot of a lone, determined tree in an otherwise harsh, rocky landscape with large stretches of open terrain. Moments later this tree is crushed by the tank-like treads of a giant vehicular contraption that is barreling through this landscape, its various moving parts crunching and whirring as (presumably steam) powers it forward.

But we're about to have our definition of "giant" redefined.

As large as the vehicle initially seems, a few moments later it is dwarfed by a much larger version of the same thing -- much larger. In fact, our "giant" vehicle is now about the size of a kitten to Andre the Giant.

As the Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic survivors on the back of our "giant" vehicle look up at it in awe as they beat a fast retreat from its approach, the much larger vehicle begins to open a gaping mechanical maw in its front, various doors opening and various arms and other tendrils starting to extend outward, ready to consume the smaller vehicle.

They ask what this thing is, and someone says "It's England."

And sure enough, as the camera pans up on this giant moving city? country? it shows some of England's most famous buildings affixed to the top.

I can't wait to see this movie.